Fish AMI Fishing Charters — Local services in Holmes Beach

If I could leave a negative 10 star review, I would leave it here in a heartbeat.

First of all, we booked our trip several weeks out. The three of us were under the impression that this trip was a “deep sea fishing trip”. If we misinterpreted that, we eat that and accept it for what it is. After all, the trip is titled a “Red Snapper Express”.

We showed up to the dock we’re told to meet at timely at 6:30 in the morning and the trip was set to begin at 7 am. We sat and waited and watched three different tours take off, we waited 10 minutes after the start time and reached out to the business owner and let him know we have been standing here waiting on our boat to show up. He then (again, late and upon us reaching out to him) let us know he had nobody to take us out on the trip that morning (after we already paid the 700$ for the trip). On the same phone call, he informed us he has had 3 different captains cancel on him recently (forshadowing details).

Business owner (David Buchek) tells us he can cancel our trip or make it up to us the next day. We’re on our first full family vacation, we want to have fun and do something my dad has never had a chance to do. We take him up on the offer he promised to make us the next day.

We arrived the next day and our captain let us know that he is currently injured (clearly a broken elbow and a broken foot). We board up and set sail, and before we even have our first cast, half the minnow bait is completely dead. By the time of our second spot, all the bait is dead.

While we were on the water, we noticed our captain clearly wasnt prepared for anything. He had nothing ready, plenty of running around looking for stuff he was missing. Over time we started to pay attention to our captain a little closer and noticed he might have a little bit of a issue with some sort of substance abuse.

The man sniffed and rubbed his nose constantly, fell asleep standing up countless times, had clearly not been to sleep in days (which doesnt help the cancellation with notification from the day before). Hangover? 3 day bender? I had to ask him 4 separate times on one occasion to rebait my hook for me because he was passing out.

We only caught one fish. Which we also, as frequent fishers, understand they cannot promise us to catch anything.

We arrived back to our house we are staying at and immediately called (BUSINESS OWNER) David Buchek and let him know we were disappointed with what we had been “promised” to be made up for our 700$ “experience”.

After explaining our dissatisfaction, he instantly resorted to telling us a half-ass apology and a “sorry, nothing I can do.” All we wanted was to find some middle ground and after explaining again what unprofessionalism we have encountered, he then went straight to anger and raising his voice, telling me “this is an audio recorded call!! You’re making threats to me!!”……… which never happened…

He told us “even if my captain was on cocaine, you guys still went out on the boat with him! Thats your fault!”…. Excuse me? We werent paying attention to him on the dock? We were eager to fish on this “upgraded experience”.

I had to hang up on him and eat the 700$ loss because he is just another “business owner” looking to make a dime off every damn tourist he can. He didnt want to listen to any complaint and our negative experience was practically “our own fault”.

I have worked retail for years, and I am now a business owner. Sorry, but this is just bad, bad business. No sympathy for the situation, not a care to find a middle ground. No respect for customer at all. We went in to this just wanting to communicate our disappointment and find some sort of middle ground.

Don’t recommend this charter at all. Do yourself a favor and go to a marina and speak to a charter yourself.

PS… check other resources for reviews other than google. Seems like we arent the only ones who experienced a bogus cancellation with little-to-no...

Very unprofessional staff. Took a 4 hour inshore trip. The lady that booked it did not disclose that we needed to check in at the yellow building or disclose that parking is nearly impossible. We drove around for 30 minutes trying to find a parking spot. We tried calling the phone number listed in the email several times - it would ring and go to a recording saying the number has been disconnected. We finally called a number listed on google and got someone. Most charters we have been on the captain contacts us and let’s us know what boat to meet at. When I called to ask, the young lady on the phone was extremely short and rude. When we arrived she told us to go outside and look for a guy in a blue shirt named Chris. We circled the dock asking everyone in a blue shirt if their name was Chris. It was very disorganized

While on our 4 hour trip we were only taken to two spots a short ways from the marina. One being by a dock( which we could have done off a boat) and the other in a zone where all the boats are flying through due to it being a passage way. Only went for 3 hours due to not having enough bait.

At the end of the trip Chris, the captain, asked for his tip (I’ve never been asked for a tip, I usually offer a tip). When I gave him a tip of $20.00 cash and was going to tip the rest on card he rudely insisted on 20 percent in hand. When I offered to tip on the blue card that was handed to me, he insisted that we process a credit card on his phone because it will take two weeks to receive his tip otherwise.

My wife let the girl in the marina know our displeasure and she was extremely dismissive. Argued back and turned her head away to ignore. Not to mention the music being played in the office was very offensive with f word after f word blaring.

We emailed company. The following day we did receive a phone call from Brian. He stated that the company was pressing charges on us stating that I spit in her face. He completely got the wrong customer. To call a customer and accuse of such is beyond me. Apparently the staff had an altercation prior with another customer. Before doing his research or looking at the cameras he called us and assumed it was us. He apologized about our horrible trip and did not offer to refund any amount. Just told us sorry and hope to see us again.

Now I have the owner calling and harassing me. He won’t stop texting me and threatening me. I hope no one ever has to experience this type of behavior from any business. Apparently they didn’t get the wrong customer. They are fabricating and lying all because they want me to take...

We've had WAY better than this....

We caught some fish and made the best of it however the trip was not worth the price. We paid for the 6 hour trip. We went out at 8, stopped fishing at 12:30 to watch Another boat of people catch a shark, and started heading back in to shore before or right at 1:00. So we did not get 6 hours of fishing. We also had to ask if we could cast our poles out to fish while our captain was up front fishing for himself. He threw out some bait on a hook (that we caught) and reeled in a big fish on his own to then ask US to take HIS picture with it. He was too busy talking and yelling to other boats while we were baiting our own hooks and taking the bait fish off. He was not prepared with extra supplies or bait. He made several comments about his boat not having much gas left and that his buddy could pull us in at the end if needed. We also thought we would get a little bit of inshore fishing AND nearshore fishing and we didn't. That part isn't a huge deal and to be fair we didnt ask. But it is something to be aware of before booking your trip. Other boats around us were catching fish left and right and were catching their limit. Again, other captains around us were just way more prepared and it showed, big time. Our captain was asking others if they had certain lures because he only brought 1 and lost it right away. If you're getting paid $750 you probably should be able to supply what is needed on the trip. Had this been our first experience maybe we wouldn't know any better but unfortunately we have. Other Captains work their tails off making every part of the trip smooth sailing and this one just simply wasnt that. Nice guy, just not a $750 captain. I would recommend going somehwere else. And as you can tell.... wrote this review 2 weeks ago and response from owner.......